Jonathan Kuo: Interview with a Game Artist/Concept artist

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Jonathan Kuo: An interview with an awesome artist

Today Creative Phlare has had the honour of doing an interview with Jonathan Kuo

First we would just like to say thank you to Jonathan Kuo for taking the time to do this interview.

You can see his works here:

www.wix.com/ovius-mon/jonathankuo

www.jonnadon.blogspot.com

Working and creating at Rebel entertainment and an impressive list of previous experiences and degree’s under his belt, Jonathan Kuo is an artist to be inspired by!

Having A look at Jonathan Jonathan Kuo’s website or facebook photos you can see straight away this man know his stuff (and loves dinosaurs! Don’t all guys?). At Creative-phlare we are always on the look out for things that inspire and just looking at Jonathan’s office doodles we’re ready to get our sketch pads and pencils out and draw! Talented in all aspects of concept art and game art it looks like there’s not much this man can’t do!

Anyway, here is our interview with Jonathan.

1.When did you become interested in illustration/art ?

Jonathan Kuo: As long as I can remember my grandmother was an artist and both of my parents are artists so I started at a young age.

2. How did you develop your style and how would you describe it?

Jonathan Kuo: I don’t really feel that I have a style I always focus on the fundamentals like basic shape designs, light and color theory, perspective, line of action, line rhythm, animal and human anatomy. the most important thing is not style but fundamentals over time your style will come out.

An example is like building a cake, you must have a good base before you put on the icing, your style and rendering is basically the icing and if the base of your cake looks like crap your icing is useless

one of my mentor also told me this once
“no matter how much you polish a turd it’s still a turd”

3. How do you come up with a concept for a piece?

Jonathan Kuo: I do a lot of research on subjects that I like and over time you start building a library in your head and that makes it easier to come up ideas.

I start with mostly fast scribal sketches and rough shapes and it’s also easier to come up with concepts when you get your fundamentals down.

4. Can you describe a bit about your creative process while creating a piece.

Jonathan Kou: first I sketch my ideas most of time it’s very rough, then I take it to a cleaner sketch and if it’s a subject that I have a lot of knowledge on I’ll start painting without any research but, if I don’t I’ll take some time and do some research before I start painting

5. How would you describe your daily routine?

Jonathan Kou: Before I start working I do sketch warm-ups like basic shapes rough sketch ideas, then rest of the day is pumping out designs for up and coming games and in my free time I either work on my personal projects or practice my craft, pretty much living the artist life.

6. What five things do you believe are really important for every illustrator.

Jonathan Kou: I only have 2 things,
1st fundamentals! fundamentals is the key to every good design!!!
2nd have fun

7. Do you have any advice anyone new who starting out on this kind of business.

Jonathan Kou:  Master the fundamentals !!! you could never get enough of fundamentals even now I still practice them

- In this business it’s a small and tight group everyone knows almost everyone so your reputation travels fast, make sure everything you do is the best and have a good work ethics.

- Also in this business there is no room for self-doubt so get that out of you head and take pride in what you do

So that’s it for this interview. We hope you enjoyed this article and please make sure you follow Jonathan on his website and  his blogs. A true inspiration!

Thank you again for the Interview Jon and keep up the fantastic work!

Read more Creative-Phlare interviews here

Please feel free to share this and comment, and as always, keep coming back for more cool articles and inspiration at Creative-Phlare!

Robin Powell